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Equipment Downtime Cost Statistics 2026

For construction plant, an idle machine’s own ownership cost is small next to the contract clock: at California’s 2026-27 equipment rates an idle 20-tonne excavator costs about US$131 a day to own, while Florida charges US$3,498 for each day a US$5 million to under US$10 million road contract runs late. In large manufacturing, Siemens and Senseye put an unproductive hour at US$36,000 to US$2.3 million. There is no universal downtime rate, so every figure here keeps its source and scope.

MapTrack compiled the 20 figures on this page from 12 published sources. Each one is shown with the organisation that published it, the publication year and the source page MapTrack reviewed. Review status and material scope limits are shown with each figure.

Industry data on the financial impact of unplanned equipment downtime, with the sample, evidence status and source limitations shown beside each figure. Citation tools are available only for verified and source-reviewed figures.

To turn a maintenance plan into scheduled work, explore maintenance and work orders.

Last updated: September 2026 · 17 reviewed figures with citation tools · 3 claim checks withheld from syndication

Lachlan McRitchie

Lachlan McRitchie

GM of Operations

Published 4 May 2026
What a day of downtime costs a contractorDowntime costs by industryAnnual downtime impactClaim checks: figures that circulate without a sourceThe reactive maintenance trapMaintenance strategy and downtime: NIST evidenceIdle equipment and utilisationFrom reactive to preventive

What a day of downtime costs a contractor

MapTrack calculations from public 2026 US government schedules: what an idle machine still costs to own, what a working one costs, the wage of an operator left waiting, and what a state road contract charges for each day it runs late. Each card shows the rows and arithmetic behind it.

US$131 a day

What an idle 20-tonne excavator costs to own

A 20-tonne-class excavator that is broken down or standing idle still costs about US$16.39 an hour to own, or US$131 over an eight-hour day, before repairs, operator wages, a replacement machine or any delay penalty.

Source: California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Labor Surcharge and Equipment Rental Rates, 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 () · claim checked against source

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#downtime-idle-excavator-ownership-2026

US$61 to US$228 a day

Idle ownership cost across common construction machines

Common construction machines cost about US$61 to US$228 a day to own while idle: US$61 for a compact track loader, US$131 for a 20-tonne excavator, US$153 for a motor grader, US$176 for a mid-size wheel loader and US$228 for a 30-tonne excavator.

Source: California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Labor Surcharge and Equipment Rental Rates, 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 () · claim checked against source

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#downtime-idle-ownership-range-2026

US$96.41 an hour

What a working 20-tonne excavator costs per hour

A 20-tonne-class excavator costs US$96.41 an hour to own and operate before the operator's wage, under California's 2026-27 equipment rate for a Caterpillar 320.

Source: California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Labor Surcharge and Equipment Rental Rates, 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 () · claim checked against source

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#downtime-excavator-operating-rate-2026

US$28.66 an hour

Median wage of a US construction equipment operator

US construction equipment operators earned a median US$28.66 an hour, or US$59,600 a year, in May 2025, so a paid eight-hour wait beside a stopped machine costs about US$229 in wages alone.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Construction Equipment Operators (May 2025 wages) () · claim checked against source

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#downtime-operator-wage-us-2025

US$3,498 a day

Late-completion charge on a US$5 million to under US$10 million road contract

Florida's transportation department charges US$3,498 for every calendar day a US$5 million to under US$10 million road contract finishes late, and US$11,171 a day plus 0.005% of the excess on contracts of US$40 million or more.

Source: Florida Department of Transportation, Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction, FY 2026-27, section 8-10.2 () · claim checked against source

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#downtime-liquidated-damages-fdot-2026

Worked example, one day on a US$5 million to under US$10 million Florida road contract: a broken-down 20-tonne excavator costs US$131 to own while it sits (Caltrans 2026-27), and a paid operator waiting beside it about US$229 at the median wage (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025). If the breakdown holds up the critical path for that day, the late-completion charge alone is US$3,498 (Florida Department of Transportation, FY 2026-27), about 27 times the idle machine's own cost. In this example the idle machine's ownership cost, before any repair bill, is the smallest line: the people and the contract clock waiting on it cost far more.

Downtime costs by industry

Vendor-study estimates for large manufacturing sectors, plus an explicit claim check for a construction range whose primary source could not be found.

US$36,000–$2.3m per hour

Cost of an hour of unplanned downtime in industry

A Siemens and Senseye 2024 vendor study of mainly large manufacturers estimated an unproductive hour at about US$36,000 in fast-moving consumer goods and US$2.3 million in a large automotive plant.

Source: Siemens / Senseye, The True Cost of Downtime 2024 () · archived copy · source reviewed, not independently verified

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#downtime-cost-manufacturing

No primary source found

The $2,000–$10,000 construction downtime range is unverified

Our review found no Construction Industry Institute publication supporting this widely repeated daily cost range.

Unverified claim check. Do not cite this as a measured finding.

Source: Widely attributed to the Construction Industry Institute; attribution not verified () · claim not verified

No underlying study or date has been located, so the 2024 year is the vintage of the secondary sources repeating it rather than of any measurement.

Citation and embed tools are disabled until this claim is verified against a primary measurement.

$2.3 million

Cost of one unproductive hour in automotive manufacturing

A Siemens and Senseye vendor study estimated an unproductive hour at a large automotive plant at US$2.3 million. It reported about US$36,000 per hour for fast-moving consumer goods; these figures should not be generalised beyond the surveyed large manufacturers.

Source: Siemens / Senseye, The True Cost of Downtime 2024 () · archived copy · source reviewed, not independently verified

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#downtime-automotive-hourly-2024

Annual downtime impact

Large-company and large-plant vendor estimates, kept within their stated sample rather than treated as all-business benchmarks.

11%

Annual revenue lost to unplanned downtime

A Siemens and Senseye 2024 vendor study estimated unplanned downtime at about 11% of combined revenue for the Fortune Global 500, or almost US$1.4 trillion a year.

Source: Siemens / Senseye, The True Cost of Downtime 2024 () · archived copy · source reviewed, not independently verified

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#downtime-lost-revenue

~$1.4 trillion

Annual cost of unplanned downtime to the 500 largest companies

A Siemens and Senseye vendor study estimated that unplanned downtime costs the world’s 500 largest companies by revenue almost US$1.4 trillion a year, about 11% of their combined revenue.

Source: Siemens / Senseye, The True Cost of Downtime 2024 () · archived copy · source reviewed, not independently verified

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#downtime-fortune500-annual

27 hours a month

Production time an average large plant loses to unplanned downtime

A Siemens and Senseye vendor study, covering mainly large manufacturers and heavy-industry producers, reported an average of about 27 unplanned-downtime hours and 25 incidents per facility per month.

Source: Siemens / Senseye, The True Cost of Downtime 2024 () · archived copy · source reviewed, not independently verified

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#downtime-plant-monthly-hours

Claim checks: figures that circulate without a source

A statistic repeated across vendor blogs and AI answers starts to look authoritative through repetition alone. Before citing a downtime figure, the question is not whether it sounds plausible but whether anyone measured it. Each check below traces one widely-quoted claim to its primary document, or says plainly that no measurement was found. If you have a primary source for a claim marked here, contact us and we will verify and cite it.

Misattributed

The $50 billion unplanned downtime figure is not a Deloitte measurement

The most-quoted downtime figure in industrial maintenance is credited to Deloitte, but Deloitte relayed it from a WSJ Custom Content page that cites no survey or method.

Unverified claim check. Do not cite this as a measured finding.

Source: IndustryWeek in collaboration with Emerson, How manufacturers can achieve Top Quartile performance, WSJ Custom Content () · archived copy · claim not verified

The origin page carries no publication date. Deloitte recorded accessing it on 7 March 2017, which is the earliest date the figure can be placed.

Citation and embed tools are disabled until this claim is verified against a primary measurement.

Same unsourced origin

The 42% of downtime caused by equipment failure claim shares that origin

The companion figure, that equipment failure causes 42% of unplanned downtime, appears in the same sentence pair on the same WSJ Custom Content page, with the same absence of any survey, sample or method.

Unverified claim check. Do not cite this as a measured finding.

Source: IndustryWeek in collaboration with Emerson, How manufacturers can achieve Top Quartile performance, WSJ Custom Content () · archived copy · claim not verified

The origin page carries no publication date; 2017 is the earliest date the figure can be placed, from Deloitte recording access on 7 March 2017.

Citation and embed tools are disabled until this claim is verified against a primary measurement.

The reactive maintenance trap

A historical government guide, a vendor-platform work-order split and one insurer loss analysis, each with a different denominator and evidence type.

up to 30–40%

Cost opportunity of moving off reactive-heavy maintenance

A 2010 US Department of Energy guide synthesising older facility evidence reported a possible 30-40% predictive-maintenance opportunity versus reactive-heavy operations and 12-18% for preventive maintenance. These are historical guide estimates, not current software outcomes.

Source: US Department of Energy / PNNL, O&M Best Practices Guide () · archived copy · source reviewed, not independently verified

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#downtime-reactive-cost

9%

Faulty workmanship and maintenance is the third top cause of corporate insurance loss

An Allianz analysis of 534,456 corporate insurance claims found that faulty workmanship and maintenance incidents are the third largest cause of loss by value, accounting for 9% of claims value and 7% of claims by number.

Source: Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, Global Claims Review 2022 () · archived copy · source reviewed, not independently verified

Published in July 2022 and based on claims from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2021. Treat this as a historical five-year claims window, not a current-year loss forecast.

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#insured-loss-faulty-workmanship-maintenance

46.3%

Share of fleet maintenance work that is unplanned

Fleetio vendor-platform data, reported by FleetOwner, covered roughly 1.2 million assets and 8.85 million work orders. It classified 53.7% of vehicle maintenance as scheduled, 40.1% as unscheduled and 6.2% as emergency, so unplanned work represented 46.3%.

Source: FleetOwner, reporting Fleetio benchmark data () · source reviewed, not independently verified

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#fleet-unplanned-maintenance-ratio

Maintenance strategy and downtime: NIST evidence

A historical US manufacturing comparison. Read the groups and denominator together before applying it to another operation.

13.0% vs 4.0%

NIST US manufacturing downtime: most- and least-reactive groups

NIST's historical US manufacturing survey: most-reactive quartile downtime 13.0% of planned production time; least-reactive 4.0%. Small-group association, not causal savings; many group differences weren't statistically significant.

Source: NIST, Economics of Manufacturing Machinery Maintenance () · source reviewed, not independently verified

Published in 2020. Historical survey evidence, not a 2026 benchmark; the source-review date is not the measurement year.

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#nist-reactive-maintenance-downtime

Idle equipment and utilisation

A 2026 vendor survey of respondent-estimated underutilisation. It does not establish a universal rate or a cause.

40-50%

Vendor-survey estimate of underutilised fleet equipment

Respondents to Teletrac Navman’s 2026 vendor survey estimated that 40 to 50% of their equipment was underutilised or unused; 67% reported assets held onsite but unused at least some of the time.

Source: Teletrac Navman, 2026 Equipment Utilization Report (via Construction Equipment) () · source reviewed, not independently verified

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#downtime-fleet-underutilised

From reactive to preventive

Historical survey ranges reported in a 2010 US government guide. They are planning context, not current guaranteed outcomes.

12–18%

Cost savings from preventive vs reactive maintenance

A 2010 US Department of Energy guide synthesising older facility evidence reported an estimated 12% to 18% preventive-maintenance saving over reactive work. It is not a guaranteed software outcome.

Source: US Department of Energy, Federal Energy Management Program, O&M Best Practices Guide Release 3.0 (p.5.3) () · archived copy · source reviewed, not independently verified

Release 3.0 (August 2010) is the current edition of the DOE guide; no later release has been published.

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#pm-savings

10× ROI

Historical survey ranges for predictive-maintenance programs

A 2010 US Department of Energy guide synthesising older industry surveys reported ranges including 10 times ROI, 25-30% lower maintenance costs, 70-75% fewer breakdowns, 35-45% less downtime and 20-25% more production. These are historical survey ranges, not guaranteed current outcomes.

Source: US Department of Energy / PNNL, O&M Best Practices Guide () · archived copy · source reviewed, not independently verified

Cite as: MapTrack Industry Statistics, https://www.maptrack.com/statistics/equipment-downtime-cost#doe-pdm-program-results

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Key findings

  • A broken-down 20-tonne excavator costs about US$131 a day to own while it stands idle (Caltrans 2026-27), against a US$3,498 daily late-completion charge on a US$5 million to under US$10 million Florida road contract (FDOT FY 2026-27).
  • Unplanned manufacturing downtime runs from about US$36,000 per hour in fast-moving consumer goods to US$2.3 million per hour in a large automotive plant.
  • The 2024 Siemens and Senseye vendor study reports nearly US$1.4 trillion, about 11% of combined revenue, for the world’s 500 largest companies by revenue.
  • A 2010 US DOE guide synthesising older evidence reported possible predictive-maintenance opportunity above 30% to 40% in reactive-heavy operations.
  • In one Fleetio dataset reported by FleetOwner, 46.3% of 8.85 million vehicle maintenance work orders were unscheduled or emergency work.
  • Teletrac Navman’s 2026 equipment-utilisation survey reported that respondents estimated 40% to 50% of their equipment was underused or unused. It is a surveyed starting point, not a universal rate.
  • The same 2010 guide reported a historical 12% to 18% range for preventive over reactive maintenance, not a current software guarantee.

Methodology

Every statistic on this page has a dated source review. Sources include government publications, research papers and clearly labelled vendor studies. Claims that failed review are presented as claim checks, not measurements. Each data point links to its source so readers can inspect the evidence and limits.

Statistics are reviewed quarterly and updated when newer data becomes available. A range retains the meaning used by its named source; it does not imply agreement across studies. A source review is not an independent replication. Monetary figures remain in their original reported currency.

Frequently asked questions

How much does equipment downtime cost per hour?

For construction plant, an idle machine's own ownership cost is small next to the contract clock: at California's 2026-27 equipment rates a 20-tonne excavator costs about US$16.39 an hour to own while it stands idle and US$96.41 an hour to own and operate, before the operator's wage, while Florida charges US$3,498 for each day a US$5 million to under US$10 million road contract runs late. In the Siemens and Senseye sample of mainly large manufacturers, an unproductive hour ranged from about US$36,000 to US$2.3 million. Calculate your own cost from lost output, idle labour, recovery costs and penalties.

What is the average annual downtime for manufacturing?

There is no defensible universal annual average. Siemens and Senseye report about 27 hours a month across roughly 25 incidents for the large plants in their 2024 study, or around 326 hours a year. That sample should not be generalised to every manufacturer.

How do you calculate equipment downtime cost?

Start with your own lost output, idle labour, recovery or replacement cost and any contractual penalties for each affected hour, then multiply by the measured duration. Do not substitute a cross-industry benchmark for those inputs.

What percentage of equipment downtime is unplanned?

A Fleetio benchmark reported by FleetOwner classified 40.1% of 8.85 million vehicle maintenance work orders as unscheduled and 6.2% as emergency, or 46.3% unplanned in that dataset. It is a fleet-platform sample, not a universal benchmark.

How does preventive maintenance reduce downtime costs?

A 2010 US Department of Energy guide synthesising older facility evidence reported 12% to 18% savings for preventive over reactive maintenance and possible predictive-maintenance opportunity above 30% to 40% in reactive-heavy operations. These historical ranges are not guaranteed software outcomes.

What industries have the highest downtime costs?

The strongest checked public evidence in this library is for large manufacturing: Siemens and Senseye report about US$36,000 per unproductive hour in fast-moving consumer goods and US$2.3 million in a large automotive plant. We withdrew widely repeated mining, construction and SME ranges that their cited sources did not support, and replaced the construction range with calculations from public equipment-rate and contract schedules.

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